Rizal SPT Lecture 2 Social Contract Theories

7/22/2019 Rizal SPT Lecture 2 Social Contract Theories

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Rizal/Socio-Political

ThoughtLecture no.2

Social Contract TheoriesLocke, Hobbes and Rousseau


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Hobbes: The Leviathan


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Thomas Hobbes: The Leviathan

state of nature - before there were any governments - theimage of permanent warfare, everyman against every

man.

Human beings need an all powerful state to protect themfrom themselves.

In Leviathan, Hobbes ignored the concept of divine rightand instead placed the source of government legitimacysquarely in humanitys hands


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Thomas Hobbes: The Leviathan

Hobbes proposed a kind of dictatorship on the basis of the

consent of the governed: I authorize and give up my

right of governing myself, to this man or this assembly of

men, on this condition, that thou give up thy right to him,

and authorize all his actions in like manner to the end

he may use the strength and means of them all, as he

shall think expedient, for their peace and common

defense.

Hobbess notion of a covenant is precisely what is meant by

a social contract: people freely agreeing with one another

to be governed in a certain way.

It is Leviathan, a giant of a state to which everyone should

voluntarily submit for their own good.


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Locke: The Second Treatise of Government


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State of Nature: Society without government was full offears and continual dangers, exacerbated by thecorruption and viciousness of degenerate men.

Locke contended that humans were born free. Peopleowned their own lives and their own labor. As a result,everybody had a right to own whatever they couldappropriate or take advantage of with their own labor, as

long as they did not harm anyone else in the process.

These were natural laws, Locke declared, discerniblethrough reason.


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In Lockes terms, the individual has three possessions life,liberty and estatethe individuals property.

Government is created to preserve these natural rights and

possessions -- People voluntarily establish a governmentby mutual agreement; in other words, on the basis of asocial contract.

Any government that pursues these basic purposes is

legitimate, because it springs from natural laws.

The powers of the state must be strictly limited and alwayssubordinate to popular control.


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Jean Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract


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The primitive man was thus a noble savage, peaceful anduncorrupted, free, healthy, honest and happyThe Noble

Savage is similar to a child.

With the development of wider social interactions and an

explicit division of labor came all the evils of advanced

social life: greed, vanity, social inequality and aggression.

It is society that corrupts human beings and encourages evil

tendencies


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Social Contractwas that government must be based onpopular consent. In order for government to be trulylegitimate, the people in each generation should have theoption of accepting or rejecting it.

Legitimacy is therefore based in a tacit social contractamong free people who collectively constitute whatRousseau called the sovereign. It is the collectivesovereign that is the ultimate source of law.

People are united in an organic body politic on the basisof the general will. The general will is the common good;it represents what is best for the community as a whole


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Integrating the Social ContractIs there consent from the governed?

Issues on the legitimacy of the leaders need to be resolved topave the way for genuine consent.

If we are to give our consent, we would be squarely placingour trust on the ability of our leaders to govern us.

In the absence of consent some of us have been indifferent

or tolerant to those who govern us.

Who do give our consent to? As a vacuum of leadership, arewe forced to another choice of a lesser evil?


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Integrating the Social Contract

Sovereignty from the people and the General Will

When will the people invoke their sovereignty in their socialcontract with our leaders? - EDSA 1 and 2 are instanceswherein the people invoked their sovereignty.

Looking at it from another perspective, when we invokedour sovereignty, would we be better off economically,politically and socially as a nation.

At the end of the dayAs a people do we really know thevalue of our sovereignty?


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Contract between the government and the people

Is it the people or the government who failed to fulfill theirend of the contract?

As constituents do we tend to obligate our government toprovide us with almost everything to the point thatgovernment is spreading itself thinly in the provision ofbasic goods and services.

On the governments side are they too consumed inpursuing their self interest that they have forgotten tofunction as a government that works for the people


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A working social contract is characterized by a mutual trustfrom both parties, that the deliverables would beresponsively realized.

Once we enter into a contract, we are placing our trust inthem, as such we must learn to discern more carefullyand this can be seen in the way that we would be votingin the upcoming election.


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Thank you

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Rizal SPT Lecture 2 Social Contract Theories